The site, spreading over ten areas of more
than 50 square kilometers, was discovered in 1981 and consists of the Temple of
the Goddess and stone tombs. It belongs to the Neolithic Hongshan Culture that
dates back 5,000 years.
The excavated Temple of the Goddess has
two groups of wooden buildings: one containing many rooms and the other having only
one room. The multi-room building is about 18 meters long from south to north
and seven meters wide from east to west; the single-room building is about two
meters long from south to north and over six meters wide from east to west. The
buildings were constructed on earth and wooden structures with painted walls
exhibiting triangular geometric patterns in reddish brown, interlaced with
yellow and white. A large number of goddesses and animal statues are piled up in
the temple. Although only a small section of the temple has been excavated,
dozens of sculpture fragments of human busts and hands were unearthed together
with jade dragons that resemble pig and huge bird sculptures that reflect high
carving techniques. A life-sized colored bust of a goddess was also unearthed,
measuring 22.5 centimeters in height and 16.5 centimeters in width with long,
round ears, a low-bridged nose and large mouth. Two round, flat jades have been
used as her eyes and her face was painted bright red. Also discovered in the
temple was pottery used at sacrificial ceremonies, which indicates that grand
sacrifices were commonly held at the temple.
The stone tombs were constructed by piling
up chipped rocks, either square or round, measuring 40 x 20 x 30 centimeters.
Each tomb covers an area of 300 to 400 square meters, with the largest
stretching over 1,000 square meters. The rocks are arranged over one meter high.
To date, the largest stone coffin found measures 3.5 meters in length and width
-- larger than the standard coffins found that do not exceed 1.5 meters in
length and 0.5 meters in width.
In these large, stone tombs, dozens of
pieces of sacrificial jade articles ware were found beneath the corpse's head,
on the chest or somewhere near the body. Among the exquisite items is the jade
dragon, which resembles a pig. It has become one of the representative relics of
the Hongshan Culture.